A Love Forsaken
by lemony muffins
Summary: A tormented Draco's love for Hermoine consumes him, and he takes desperate measures to claim her heart. Dramoine.
1. Prologue: Awakening

**Prologue - The Awakening**

The fiery July sun beat down on Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but even the eternal giver of life could not illuminate the gloomy recesses of Draco's tormented soul as he sat at the edge of the Quidditch pitch, lost in the darkest of thoughts. He hated this time of year, this season of dazzling colours and glorious weather, when the other students laughed and danced and played while he lay trapped in the impregnable prison of his mind.

Then _she_ appeared.

Hermione, her hair cascading about her face like chestnut waterfalls. Hermione, with her dainty features; the deep brown eyes that sparkled with life; the slightly upturned nose that wrinkled with disgust whenever she saw him; the proud lips that quivered prettily in moments of strong emotion (and oh, how he longed to share those moments). Hermione, who awoke inside him something he had long thought dead, something that now crawled and twitched and beat against those prison walls, begging for her.

As always, she was with Potter (Draco's lip curled slightly as the name crossed his thoughts) and Weasley. The three of them were deep in conversation, no doubt concerning their next fantastical adventure, in which he was growing increasingly tired of his role as antagonist. Potter looked over to where he was sitting, then said something to Weasley and Hermione, who threw disdainful glances in his direction. Then the three were off, laughing and chattering happily once more, while Draco stared after her, unable to tear his gaze away.

He knew then that he had to have her; that nothing, no-one, could be allowed to stand in his way. This was a love so pure, so absolute it could not be denied, and whatever it might take, whatever the risk, he had to make her see, to help her feel the same way.

*

_(A/N Just a teaser. Please review if you want me to continue this. I have the next few chapters planned out, but I want to know what you think of the setup. Thanks!)_


	2. One A Wicked Plan

The library was vast and filled with a richly textured silence, as though the endless rows of great tomes consumed all sound to imprison it between their time-yellowed pages. As much as he detested the noisome frolics of the fellow students he sneered down upon, Draco found the quietness equally detestable as it merely served to amplify the horrible noise in his head; a cajoling, controlling whisper, too low to discern its true meaning, yet too loud and insistent to disobey.

He ran one long finger along the spines of the books as he went, eyes closed in concentration as he let the leather-bound volumes of the Dark Arts section guide him. Finally he came to rest on a modest volume with no inscription on its black velvet cover. He drew it away from its companions and opened it.

Forbidden Magicks Of The Heart

A. C. Algernon

Below the author's name was a warning against improper use of the spells and potions detailed within, which he skimmed briefly over to get to the meat. Finding what he wanted, he snuck the book under his cloak of invisibility and snuck out of the library, hurrying back to his chamber to lay his plans, and then to dream of Hermoine, her face set pale and bright against the blackness of his misery.

"Harry, weren't you paying attention at all?" said Hermoine, frustrated. "I said the circus is coming to Hogsmeade!"

"The circus?" said Harry, disbelievingly. "You mean, elephants and twirly moustaches and all that?"

"No, silly, its a magic circus," replied Hermoine in an affectionately disdainful tone.

"I've never been to the circus," muttered Ron. "Mum says its too dangerous."

The three sat together in the Great Hall, munching contendedly on the mountains of food that had appeared before them. Hermoine held a chicken leg up to munch on, oblivious of Draco's mutterings from the Slytherin table as he gazed at her with his dark, tortured eyes.

Had any of them been paying close attention to the chicken leg, they would have seen it glow a pale blue for just a moment before she sank her teeth into the soft flesh. But there was no reason for them to be suspicious, and Draco smiled as the deed was done. Somewhere, deep in his misery-blackened heart, there was suddenly the faintest glimmer of hope, a tiny seed of something human. Now, at last, she would be his – and there was nothing that Potter wretch could do about it.


End file.
